Sharing a border with them makes it a little less entertaining and a little more concerning
this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Ooof I can imagine. Canada or Mexico?
Canada. The guy who doesn't joke is joking about annexing us.. ralph-wiggam-on-the-bus.jpg
On the plus side, it's seems like most our our public response has ranged from "no thanks" to "here, let me warm up this poker real quick so you can go fuck yourself with it." Hopefully Poilievre is somewhere in that range and not among the other minority.
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I’ve encouraged my teenage children to seek employment outside of the States after college, and even attend college abroad if possible. Since the news information ecosystem is compromised, I have no hope for a future USA that is free and equitable.
Americans, how do you cope?
Alcohol
What's your take on the situation?
I'm leaving the country. My friends are stockpiling and getting sterilized.
Move to Belgium! We have lots of quality beers and delicious fries!
I can't leave. They just made my gender illegal to put on a passport.
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I can vouch for that, Belgian fries are by far the superior kind. In a way I'm glad I don't live there or I'd have the circumference of a small planet by now.
You get used to it when you live here, trust me. Only once a week, as is tradition!
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Surviving.
Right now, it feels like all I can do. Keep going, keep reaching out to other members of the local LGBT community to help be a wall to lean on, keep telling my partners that I love them. Keep sheltering whatever tiny spark is left.
And making sure that spark is fed, in whatever little ways I can. Letting myself be more open, letting my colors flash a bit more. Trying to smile in the face of hate.
As to my take on the situation, it's fucked. There's no nuance to it. We're watching our siblings and ourselves being actively erased, waking up wondering when our actual existence will be a crime. Even if we make it through, things somehow get better, there's so much trust that has been completely broken.
Our government has pissed on lines that, even with a total change of leadership, will take time to repair. Both within the country and on a global scale. Many people within the country have done the same, there will be no taking back things said and done while they thought it was "okay". There's no forgetting the hate that has been exposed.
I agree with your assessment: I find it both fascinating (who would have thought each new thing was actually possible, what insane bad idea will be launched today?) and horrifying.
Still working out the coping aspect, as what’s going on directly affects me and some of my family, but mostly switch between paying very close attention and trying to game out what the agenda is, and then taking a day to not pay attention and live in calm denial.
Every once in a while a group of mean spirited bullies would get elected to student government. But that didn’t really matter and was only a few months. This is real life and will have consequences for generations. Regan and W bush were both known for defUnding things like science, health, and education. We’re still dealing with ramifications from those defundings today. What we’re currently dealing with wants to make that look like nothing. I have my gripes with Clinton. But he managed to get the budget balanced without this kind of drama and malace. I refused to get sucked into watching this. Watching it only feeds it. I am trying to check on the situation periodically and complain to my representatives at intervals. It isn’t enough. But I’m doing what I can
And doing what you can is still better than doing nothing!
Shit’s pretty fucked right now, and yeah, it’s scary, distressing, and absolutely disturbing.
I live in a small, rural ex-urb. Plenty of people here definitely voted for this. I don’t interact with my neighbors and keep to myself. I live below my means and am financially sound, at least.
I can’t do much about any of this. I donate to my local food bank monthly because hungry people are angry people, and folks gotta eat, regardless is political leanings. And I donate to Wikipedia because I value information.
None of this helps with the insanity and the politics, but hopefully it helps somebody.
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As Americans, we're really good at airing out our political dirty laundry on the world stage, as well as taking every item in the news to its most extreme conclusion (especially in online circles that are too homogeneous in their political leanings).
I just try to cut through all the noise and keep perspective.
This is the most positive take I've read on this topic so far. I hope it's true and it's all more circus than it seems, but it's scary tho
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of decisions being made that I strongly disapprove of, but I just want to caution that we have a tendency to overwhelm online conversations and completely lose perspective.
Real life in the US is very different than it is presented online.
We live in a blue bubble so I'm just ignoring everything the next four years and saving money.
My biggest dream is my state along with the other western states just decides to leave the US and we create our own thing.
The notion that this will all blow over in four years is absurd. The damage that has already been done will take years to repair. I understand wanting to put your head in the sand, but if you do that during a rising tide, you’re gonna drown.
No I get that thinking it will go back to normal in 4 years is optimistic. But there's nothing else I can do and being optimistic is the only thing keeping me from blowing my brains out.
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